Starts

On 6 February, the seeds we ordered from J. L. Hudson arrived.  On 7 February, I started 36 plugs of mountain mahogany (Cerocarpus montanus) and 36 plugs of Palmer's penstemon (Penstemon palmeri).  The mountain mahogany seeds (pictured) were funny little javelin shaped things with a curlicue tail.  I planted one seed per plug with the point down and the curlicue up.  The penstemon seeds were non-descript black lumps no larger than the head of a pin.  I liberally scattered up to five or six penstemon seeds per plug.  As of today (19 February), I have about five germinants, all mountain mahogany.

On 9 February, I started 31 plugs of pinyon pine (Pinus edulis).  They are supposed to be relatively easy to germinate, but nothing has sprouted yet, ten days later.  On 16 February, I started 36 plugs of sweet marjoram (Origanum majorana) and attempted to do the same with 36 plugs of Greek oregano (Origanum heracleoticum).  Unfortunately, I made an error opening the packet and the oregano seeds were so tiny that I lost them.  My only hope is that some of them were lost on the plugs themselves.  I'll have to wait to see if anything germinates from that side of the flat.

In this game, patience is a virtue, and I certainly need to wait a few weeks before providing a full germination report.  The problem is that Valerie planted a bunch of stuff in a flat next to mine around the same time as I did.  As of last count, she had 66 germinants.  There has never been any doubt that she is more talented than I am, but how do the seeds know that?  My only consolation is that I gave her the sunnier window and a little bit of a head start.  That way, if I have a complete germination failure, I can always play the martyr.